A Multi-point Time Division Multiplex (TDM) system typically includes a TDM bus and a plurality of stations connected to the bus. In such an arrangement a station may use one or more time slots on the bus for communications with other stations or devices connected to the bus. Because time slots can only be used once while propagating from one end of the bus to the other, the time slots used for communication by "upstream" stations are not available for communication by "downstream" stations. Undesirably, during heavy time slot usage by the upstream stations, the access to the bus by the downstream stations may encounter additional delay.
One known technique suggests that time slots be released once they reach a destination station. This technique requires that each destination station read a complete time slot of data and erase the data from that time slot thereby enabling the reuse of that time slot by downstream stations. Because a station does not know it is a destination station until it has read a substantial part of data in each time slot, a latent delay equal to a fraction of one time slot exists for each station connected to the bus. Undesirably, in system arrangements having a significant number of stations, the delay introduced is unacceptable.
What is lacking in the art is an arrangement which enables TDM systems to reuse time slots without adding substantial delay to the overall data transmission time.